Defending Animal Rights

About this book

A multifaceted response to the question "do animals have rights?" from an intellectual leader in the animal rights movement, now available in paperback.

"Amongst ethical topics, animal rights is perhaps the hottest, most divisive, and least understood. . . . This book helps to clarify one of the most important and perplexing quandaries of our time. Through it all, the voice of Tom Regan is congenial, humble, and warm-hearted. If you want to read a philosophy book on ethics and animals, this one is a gem--and why not read one written by a master?"
-- Philosophy Now

More than a contest of wills representing professional and economic interests, the animal rights debate is also an enduring topic in normative ethical theory. In paperback for the first time, Defending Animal Rights addresses the key issues in this sometimes acrimonious debate.

Tom Regan responds thoughtfully to his critics while dismantling the conception that "all and only" human beings are worthy of the moral status that is the basis of rights. Systematically unraveling claims that human beings are rational and therefore entitled to superior moral status, Regan defends the inherent value of all individuals who are "subjects of a life" and decries the speciesism that pretends to separate human from nonhuman animals.

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